Friday, April 16, 1999

Tacoma

Inspections performed by Stroud’s Auto Rebuild for vehicle owners after having their cars repaired at area body shops reveal poor quality repairs are common and some vehicles are unsafe to drive. Customers are expressing their appreciation for the service Stroud’s Auto Rebuild is providing. Someone is finally stepping up to assist customers to understand their right to claim diminished value and to ensure that their vehicles get properly and safely repaired. Stroud’s Auto Rebuild has been performing WreckCheck® diminished value assessments for customers who have come in following recent publicity about diminished value. Diminished value is the loss in economic value a car may incur after it has been repaired following a serious accident.

"I had my truck repaired at a dealer’s body shop," said Russell Toms, who had a WreckCheck inspection done. "When they (the body shop) were done, they had not completed all the frame repair and my truck was unsafe to drive. My family’s safety was put at risk by the poor quality repairs the insurance company authorized to be done."

"The WreckCheck inspection that Stroud’s performed provided me with a way to identify what was still wrong with my truck. Now I know I wasn’t just imagining the things I thought were still wrong with the way my truck drove. Stroud’s is helping me make sure my truck gets fixed right this time."

"All this wouldn’t have happened if the insurance company would have let me take the truck where I wanted it fixed instead of directing me elsewhere," Mr. Toms said.

"We’re continuing to find that too many of the cars and trucks we look at still have safety-related problems, even after they are repaired," said Mike Harber, president of Stroud’s Auto Rebuild. "Why are these vehicles being put back on the road to endanger the lives of the drivers and everyone else? Why aren’t the repairs being done right? It appears that the efforts of the insurance companies to reduce their costs are often resulting in cars not being properly repaired to pre-loss condition. This is of particular concern to us when there are safety issues."

"We’re seeing unrepaired frame damage, resulting in poor or bad handling. We have one vehicle here now that is so bad it could actually break down on the road. Another common problem is rusted welds. This could easily result in a car being unable to correctly absorb another collision the way it was originally designed. Instead, it would come apart or collapse at the wrong places. That’s a safety problem."

"People pay a lot of money for these cars. And one of the features people buy is the safety that’s designed into them. New cars are designed to ‘give themselves up’ for you to save your life. A proper repair should restore that."

Insurers are usually contractually obligated to return a vehicle to its pre-loss condition concerning function, safety, appearance, and value. If an insurer has paid for a substandard repair, they may be obligated to pay for additional repairs to return the vehicle to pre-loss condition and to pay for the diminished value.

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